Sunday, July 11, 2010

Library Visits and Summer Reading 2010

I had planned to check out a number of the books suggested here for funny summer reads. But library visits haven't been frequent around here and I've chosen to use the homeschooling budget on a few activity books that caught my eye instead of story books.

We did however make one very surprisingly productive library trip last week. See, you won't get normal library visit blog posts from me, no sirree! Everyone else would tell you how they go to the library lugging suitcases or rolling crates for books. Our visits are always accompanied by a very skeptical me and a kiddo who thinks library books are for adorning coffeetables and otherwise, being forgotten. I don't know why this is when the both of us are book-piranhas. That's one of the reasons why I have to end up buying the books we like (and oh of course, the addiction bit...cough, cough).

Also, our library is about 50 miles away. Yup, even after our move, we're still prefering the Milpitas library to the one closer to home. And, I have a terrible "thing" about library fines and deadlines and if the kiddo doesn't read a library book he chose, I've been known to go ballistic about it. So we try not to overdo library visits just for the sake of some domestic peace and quiet.

People tell me things like "I've never had to put a book in my child's hands" and I seriously applaud them. It just doesn't work like that at FunSchooling Central though.

Last week's library trip however, has been an anomaly in our otherwise crazy lives. He actually picked a few books I'd readily call living books (with superb vocabulary) and read them cover to cover! Instead of declaring himself done after skipping a significant portion of the pages like he usually does.

The Serial Garden: The Complete Armitage Family Stories (Junior Library Guild Selection)Here's our current summer reading for July:

Avoid Boring People (my bedtime reading) is Jim Watson's (of Watson and Crick fame) take on how one should approach a life of science. And I personally loved The Magician's Elephant. It was a little too sad for kiddo but perfect for me.

The Magician's ElephantThe Magnificent Nose is so spot-on about how odd children with special talents can feel in this world...yet how much they should be celebrated for their oddness. And The Serial Garden: The Complete Armitage Family Stories by Joan Aiken about the two Armitage kids is simply and literally magical! Love their "free range" parents.
THE MAGNIFICENT NOSE AND OTHER MARVELS

Questors I am dubious about but the kiddo really liked it and since it seemed well-written and not twaddly, I let it go.

He's also re-reading Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry: How to Write a Poem by Prelutsky and loving the third Calvin And Hobbes tome he owns.

What have you been reading this summer?

3 comments:

  1. See, we are one of those families that haul home heaps of books each visit. On Billy's side though, we usually haul most of them back again unread! He's getting better though.

    Meanwhile I'm getting worse. I'm getting more & more picky with what I read and end up discarding books part way through (something I used to regard as sacrilege!)

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  2. --Meanwhile I'm getting worse. I'm getting more & more picky with what I read and end up discarding books part way through (something I used to regard as sacrilege!)--

    Oh gosh Kerrie, you too? :) I keep abandoning books I think I should be reading for the books the kiddo should be reading LOL. I know I've reached that stage where I really need more laughs in my life.

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  3. I'm glad to hear that you still come to the Milpitas library, Suji. It gives me hope that one of these days I'll bump into you there :) Or maybe I can orchestrate a meet-up by tempting your book addiction ... if you should happen to be at the Milpitas library 25th, I'll be organizing the Friends of the library book sale. Helping us get the books out of boxes and onto the tables means getting to take your choice of books home with you - on the order of about 3 inches per hour worked. Kiddo can participate and choose his own titles, too. I'm there working on it a.l.l. d.a.y. :)

    But, moving on to our library habits - if I pick up leisure reading titles for Sayer she devours them (especially mysteries). If I pick up supplemental reading for history ... they mostly get returned unread. And I have SO many books at home already, waiting to be read, that I just can't allow myself to check out titles for me ... except audio books for long drives. :)

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